Will Whale Wars See Its Next Season?

(WHALE WARS) It’s summertime in the Northern Hemisphere, and for the last five years, this has typically meant a new season of Animal Planet’s popular reality show, “Whale Wars.” This coming season, however, has been pushed back to fall, or possibly even early 2014. It will be the show’s sixth season on air, and will exhibit a new, exciting twist. Rather than an Animal Planet crew shooting on deck, it will stitch together episodes from footage the activists shot of themselves. Read on for more information on Sea Shepherd and the advancement of “Whale Wars.” — Global Animal

The delayed sixth installment of “Whale Wars” promises to be the show’s most entertaining and provocative. Photo Credit: James Nachtwey/VII

Kitsap Sun, Christopher Dunagan

For the past several years, June has brought us a new television season of “Whale Wars.” But this year the production has been delayed, and nobody seems to know when the show is likely to air.

Whale Wars, of course, is the weekly documentary showing confrontations on the high seas, as Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tries to stop Japanese whaling in the Antarctic.

As I reported in January (Water Ways, Jan. 4), Sea Shepherd hired its own film crew during this past whaling season (summer in the Antarctic, winter here). At the time, it seemed like the group did so to be able to control the filming. But in a new blog entry in The New Yorker, Raffi Khatchadourian suggests that it was the Animal Planet producers who got cold feet, given the Ninth Circuit Court injunction that prevented Sea Shepherd from getting within 500 feet of the Japanese ships.

The U.S. affiliate of Sea Shepherd and Capt. Paul Watson himself withdrew from the anti-whaling campaign, leaving in charge the Australian affiliate, which is not subject to U.S. court jurisdiction.

Brian Eley, senior communications manager for Discovery Channel, responded to my inquiry yesterday, saying it isn’t clear when Season 6 of “Whale Wars” will air. Footage was delayed this year “through no fault of anyone.”

I asked whether it was a decision of Sea Shepherd or Animal Planet to have Sea Shepherd crew members do the filming.

“Last year, Sea Shepherd said they were taking over the footage first,” Eley said. “We don’t want to contradict them, but certainly each side had reasons to go with the current deal.

“I can honestly say,” he added, “I am not sure when the series will air, but it will.”

Meanwhile, Sea Shepherd is preparing for its 10th campaign against the Japanese whalers, after touting much success in the last trip to the Antarctic. For details, check out the following news releases issued by Sea Shepherd, along with this video, which offers a preview of the dramatic footage we can expect to see if and when “Whale Wars – Season 6” comes to television.

2 Responses to Will Whale Wars See Its Next Season?

The people on all of the ships that fight for the whales lives do good work. Smart and intelligent people doing what they can to protect smart and intelligent animals, or any animal for that matter. Keep up the good work and shame on U.S. for putting an injunction on the crew, captian, and all. WHALE WARS!!!!!!